Muriel Barbery Quotes

Quotes about:

• There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder, so much power in just feeling our own insignificance when we are surrounded by nature.

  Muriel Barbery

  Tree, Feelings, Humanity

  46 Copy quote

• People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd.

  Muriel Barbery

  Life, Stars, Children

  Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.15, Gallic Books

  50 Copy quote

• . . . maybe that's what life's all about: there's a lof of despair, but also the odd moments of beauty, where time is no longer the same . . . [like] something suspended . . . an elsewhere . . . an always within a never. Yes, that's is, an always within a never.

  Muriel Barbery

  Despair, Odd, Moments

  13 Copy quote

• When something is bothering me, I seek refuge. No need to travel far; a trip to the realm of literary memory will suffice. For where can one find more noble distraction, more entertaining company, more delightful enchantment than in literature?

  Muriel Barbery

  Memories, Enchantment, Needs

  Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.96, Gallic Books

  7 Copy quote

• ...we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity. That's what the future is for: to build the present, with real plans, made by living people.

  Muriel Barbery

  Inspirational, Real, People

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

  22 Copy quote

• I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language.

  Muriel Barbery

  Enchantment, Spirit, Language

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

  21 Copy quote

• Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.

  Muriel Barbery

  Thinking, Way, Grammar

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September 2, 2013.

  29 Copy quote

• Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside she is covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary--and terrible elegant.

  Muriel Barbery

  Real, Simple, Feelings

  76 Copy quote

• With the exception of love, friendship and the beauty of Art, I don't see much else that can nurture human life.

  Muriel Barbery

  Art, Friendship Love, Human Life

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

  21 Copy quote

• When someone that you love dies..it's like fireworks suddenly burning out in the sky and everything going black.

  Muriel Barbery

  Sky, Black, Burning

  129 Copy quote

• When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?

  Muriel Barbery

  Heart, Greatness, Jewels

  7 Copy quote

• Beautiful things should belong to beautiful souls.

  Muriel Barbery

  Beautiful, Soul, Should

  Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.89, Gallic Books

  11 Copy quote

• Live, or die: mere consequences of what you have built. What matters is building well. So here we are, I've assigned myself a new obligation. I'm going to stop undoing, deconstructing, I'm going to start building. What matters is what you are doing when you die... I want to be building.

  Muriel Barbery

  What Matters, Want, Building

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September, 2008.

  15 Copy quote

• The real ordeal is not leaving those you love but learning to live without those who don't love you.

  Muriel Barbery

  Real, Love You, Leaving

  20 Copy quote

• We think we can make honey without sharing in the fate of bees, but we are in truth nothing but poor bees, destined to accomplish our task and then die.

  Muriel Barbery

  Fate, Thinking, Honey

  21 Copy quote

• ...This is the first time I have met someone who seeks out people and who sees beyond. [...] We never look beyond our assumptions and, what's worse, we have given up trying to meet others; we just meet ourselves. We don't recognize each other because other people have become our permanent mirrors. If we actually realized this, if we were to become aware of the fact that we are alone in the wilderness, we would go crazy. [...] As for me, I implore fate to give me the chance to see beyond myself and truly meet someone.

  Muriel Barbery

  Crazy, Fate, Mirrors

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, books.google.ru. September, 2 2013.

  14 Copy quote

• As far as I can see, only psychoanalysis can compete with Christians in their love of drawn-out suffering.

  Muriel Barbery

  Christian, Suffering, Psychoanalysis

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

  5 Copy quote

• If you want to heal Heal others And smile or weep At this very happy reversal of fate

  Muriel Barbery

  Fate, Want, Heal

  Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.229, Gallic Books

  6 Copy quote

• How to measure a life's worth? The important thing, said Paloma one day, is not the fact of dying, it is what you are doing in the moment of your death.

  Muriel Barbery

  Important, Dying, One Day

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September 2, 2013.

  11 Copy quote

• I'll be searching for those moments of always within never. Beauty, in this world." - Paloma

  Muriel Barbery

  World, Moments, This World

  6 Copy quote

• In a split second of eternity, everything is changed, transfigured. A few bars of music, rising from an unfamiliar place, a touch of perfection in the flow of human dealings - I lean my head slowly to one side, reflect on the camellia on the moss on the temple, reflect on a cup of tea, while outside the wind is rustling foliage, the forward rush of life is crystalized in a brilliant jewel of a moment that knows neither projects nor future, human destiny is rescued from the pale succession of days, glows with light at last and, surpassing time, warms my tranquil heart.

  Muriel Barbery

  Heart, Destiny, Jewels

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August, 2006.

  19 Copy quote

• In our world, that's the way you live your grown-up life: you must constantly rebuild your identity as an adult, the way it's been put together it is wobbly, ephemeral, and fragile, it cloaks despair and, when you're alone in front of the mirror, it tells you the lies you need to believe.

  Muriel Barbery

  Lying, Believe, Mirrors

  20 Copy quote

• Don't worry Renee, I won't commit suicide and I won't burn a thing. Because from now on, for you, I'll be searching for those moments of always within never. Beauty, in this world.

  Muriel Barbery

  Suicide, Worry, World

  4 Copy quote

• Talent consists not in inventing shapes but in causing those that were invisible to emerge.

  Muriel Barbery

  Shapes, Talent, Invisible

  17 Copy quote

• Yes, the world may aspire to vacuousness, lost souls mourn beauty, insignificance surrounds us. Then let us drink a cup of tea. Silence descends, one hears the wind outside, autumn leaves rustle and take flight, the cat sleeps in a warm pool of light. And, with each swallow, time is sublimed.

  Muriel Barbery

  Sleep, Cat, Autumn

  4 Copy quote

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